There are so many companies out there now making their own thermal compounds now, most every company that makes a CPU cooler now has their very own thermal compound to go with it. Is that a bad thing? Not really, but how does a person know which one is really the best choice where the choices are so many? Well that’s why there are sites like this one to help people make informed decisions by throughly testing these products and comparing them to the other leading brands out there.
I just reviewed the Noctua NH-U12P CPU cooler and with it came a small sample of their new NT-H1 thermal compound, they also sent me a full tube as well to test for review purposes. It just so happened I was also in process of doing a thermal paste round-up comparison when this arrived for review so the timing was great to get a good comparison of the NT-H1 against the four others I’d already tested so far. So continue on to learn more about the new Noctua NT-H1 thermal compound and see how it compares to the leading brands out there today…
Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Compound Review
Author: Kristofer Brozio
Sponsor: Noctua
Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
Noctua’s NT-H1 is a pro-grade TIM solution for enthusiasts who demand both exceptional performance and maximum ease of use: A hybrid compound of different micro-particles allows for minimum thermal resistance, excellent ease of use and outstanding long-term stability.
Excellent performance
NT-H1 consists of a hybrid compound of different micro-particles, which has been specifically optimized for use in PC environments. Thanks to its extremely low thermal resistance as well as excellent pliability and spreadability, NT-H1 achieves outstanding results.
Maximum ease of use & efficient dosage
As NT-H1 spreads very well under pressure, there’s no need to smear it over the heat-spreader. This reduces both the consumption of paste and the time spent on the installation process: Put one drop of NT-H1 onto the center of your CPU, install the cooler and that’s it!
Top-performance right from the start
NT-H1 reaches its full performance extremely fast and doesn’t require a longer "burn-in" time.
Excellent long-term stability
NT-H1 doesn’t contain any solvents or other substances with low flash point and provides excellent long-term stability. Due to the compound’s exceptional curing, bleeding, dry-out and thermal cycling characteristics, NT-H1 can be used for several years without any problems.
Not electrically conductive, non-corroding
NT-H1 possesses a very low dielectric constant and a high dielectric strength. Therefore, there’s no danger of short-circuits even in case of direct contact with components or conducting paths. Fully compatible with all materials commonly employed in PC environments, NT-H1 is suited for use with aluminum and copper coolers.
Suitable for compressor cooling
NT-H1 is perfectly suited for use with compressor coolers. Even at the very lowest temperatures, the paste delivers full performance and remains easy to clean off.
Specs:
Volume: 1.4ml (for at least 15 applications)
Specific Gravity: 2,49 g/cm
Color: gray
Recommended storage time (before use): up to 2 years
Recommended usage time (on the CPU): up to 3 years
Peak operating temperature: -50C to +110C
Recommended operating temperature: -40C to +90C
A Better Look at Things
:
The NT-H1 Thermal Compound comes in the familiar syringe dispensing system, this makes things easier and neater for the most part. The packaging for it is a basic display card that you might see hanging in a store with the syringe in the center. The back of the card has got the same information I listed in the info/specs section.
It’s a fairly large syringe so you will get quite a few uses out of it (approx. 15 applications) and it has a shelf life of two years so we should be good for a while…
The compound itself is a light gray in color, and it’s thick, very thick actually, I was a bit surprised by just how hard it was to get out of the tube. It has almost a dry feeling to it, not very sticky like other compounds.
Installation, Testing and Comparison
For testing of course I’ve got to compare the NT-H1 to other thermal compounds, and as I mentioned in the intro I was in process of doing a comparison of compounds. So far I had tested four thermal paste brands: Jetart Diamond Nano, Thermalright Chill Factor, Arctic Cooling MX-2 and Arctic Silver 5. Of course between each application the CPU and CPU cooler were both cleaned throughly with ArctiClean and allowed their burn-in times if need be.
*Arctic Silver 5 was actually the only compound that required any burn-in time at approximately 200hours or about nine days of running the system on and off several times per day. I received the Thermalright Ultima 90 CPU Cooler for review so I used that for all the testing, you’ll see that review shortly, tomorrow actually…
Being the NT-H1 is so thick it was a bit difficult to spread like other thermal compounds, but Noctua recommends just putting a glob in the center of the CPU, putting the heatsink on then twisting it back and forth to spread it around. I was a bit leery of this method of application, but I tried it and removed the heatsink to make sure the compound was spread evenly and it was, so the technique does work fine for the application of this compound.
My test setup consists of:
-Intel P4 Extreme Edition 955 CPU @ 3.46GHZ
-Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R LGA775 Motherboard
-Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2 PC2-8500 (2x1gig)
-Connect3d X1800GTO Video Card
-Ultra X3 800-Watt Modular Power Supply
-1x hard drive
-1x dvd/rw drive
-2x 120mm case fans, (1 intake and 1 exhaust)
-all housed in a Thermaltake Matrix VX case
And here’s the results of my tests:
All the temperatures you see have a .5 after them because the temperatures never stayed at one number or the next. For example the Arctic Cooling MX-2 compound at Idle bounced between 22 and 23 degrees so therefore it gets a recorded temperature of 22.5C average.
Well the first thing you’ll see is that pretty much everyone beat out Arctic Silver 5, except for the Jetart Diamond Nano which was a degree higher.
If we have to declare a winner of course it would be the Noctua NT-H1, but the temperatures are extremely close all around, and to make a choice you’d have to consider price and quantity you’d receive for that price. Considering you get quite a bit with the NT-H1 for a low price (about $8 average) it’s well worth the cost in terms of performance and quantity.
Of course this is a new product and obviously there was no time for long term testing to prove the claim of 3 years usage time or the 2 years shelf life time so only time will tell about those claims, but Noctua has a great reputation and there is no real reason not to believe them.
On a side note I think Arctic Silver might need to come out with a new version of their compound to remain competitive in this ever expanding market today, all of the other compounds I tested are instantly ready with no burn-in time required so of course that is a big bonus in a society where we expect instant gratification… with the many choices out there that are better performing, Arctic Silver might be in trouble, but then again the name is so well known and the market saturated with their presence it will be a long time before consumers actually recognize any other brands of thermal compound, even if they are a better alternative… If Noctua or any of the other companies that make thermal compounds wish to remain competitive they need to get more exposure for their products, they also need to be much more visible and be on the shelves of brick and mortar stores right next to the competitors. Just my two cents if that means anything…
Summary:
Obviously, from my testing, Noctua has a great product in their new NT-H1 thermal compound, it offers instant thermal conductivity, which translates to great performance from the minute you apply it.
NT-H1 has many other features going for it as well, including being non-conductive, long shelf life, long usage time, large quantity and a low price, all of these things combine to make an excellent product that in the highly competitive market will be hard to beat.
Noctua has a great product on their hands, now they just need to market it, promote it and get it into the hands of users who can help spread the word about this great product.
DragonSteelMods gives the Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Compound a 5 out of 5 score and our Recommended Award as well.
Pros:
-Not electrically conductive
-Instant thermal conductivity
-Long usage time (up to 3yrs)
-Large amount in tube, many applications
-Low price
Cons:
-Thick consistency, hard to spread
-Not widely available
I would like to thank Noctua for the chance to review the Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Compound and for their continued support of DSM.
Discuss, questions about this review HERE
Happy New Year!
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